Carbon blacks play a major role as a structural component, conductive support, and electrocatalyst support in batteries, double layer capacitors, and fuel cells. In addition, because of their unique physiochemical properties, including very high surface area and good electrical conductivity, they are widely used in the paint, tire and rubber industries as well as in gas filter applications.
It is well known that various surface functional groups present on the carbon, or deliberately anchored to the carbon after fabrication, play a significant role in deciding the ultimate physical and chemical properties of carbon blacks. Since it is possible to directly introduce appropriate electro-active functional groups (such as carboxyl, hydroxyl or quinone etc.) at carbon black surfaces via chemical, or thermal processes, the acid/base character or the hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of carbon blacks can be changed. Although these methods can be used to change carbon black surface chemistry, they are time consuming, require complicated processing and often involve hazardous or toxic chemicals along with substantially increased manufacturing costs.